


Lunchbox Friends

by danbaihe



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bang Chan is a Sweetheart, Depressed Seo Changbin, Depression, Dissociation, Fainting, Football | Soccer, Han Jisung | Han is a Sweetheart, High School, Kim Seungmin & Kim Wonpil are Siblings, M/M, Other, References to Depression, Rugby, Sad Seo Changbin, Seo Changbin-centric, Sports, Swim Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25726345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danbaihe/pseuds/danbaihe
Summary: "Changbin, you're not breathing."As soon as he said it, Changbin realized he was indeed right.  Changbin was not breathing.  Pressure was going to his head and it was starting to burn.Changbin gasped for air, coughing violently as he did so, Chan patting him on the back.  "Can you move yet?" He asked, and after testing his legs slightly, he nodded although he was shaky.
Relationships: Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 64





	Lunchbox Friends

**Author's Note:**

> This was not proofread and was kind of an idea I just ran w so sorry for the lack of well,,, everything lmao but especially structure

Changbin couldn’t focus.

It’s not that it was difficult to, or he was just slacking, no, he couldn’t. A month ago he noticed it at first, like he wasn’t in his own body. During soccer practice he lagged. Had a moment where he just felt like his body wasn’t his own and as he kicked the ball his foot felt weird. Like it was tingling, but he wasn’t numb. He couldn’t celebrate with his teammates as he had made the goal that day.

Then two weeks after that, he had an entire day where he couldn’t pay attention in class. He just couldn’t put a pencil to paper, in fact he couldn’t even move. It freaked him the fuck out. No one had noticed a thing, just assuming that he had sat there, maybe sleeping? No, he could move his eyes. He was looking from side to side erratically, flicking his thumb, hoping to god someone noticed, but no one did. He brushed it off, and from that day forward he sat in the cafeteria by himself, away from his teammates. They only really hung out with him during lunch and practice anyways. Never came to his house or anything, which didn’t hurt, but felt kind of like a stab at his pride when he saw them hanging out together at the movie theaters…

...and the arcade...and a party he had been invited to because it was at his cousin’s house.

Yeah, okay, maybe it hurt. Maybe part of that hurt was that he had tried hard to make friends at his school, but no one had even bothered to say so much as hi to him. He was the glory of the soccer team, and yet, wasn’t talked to by anyone, was barely interacted with. Due to this he decided to start eating alone. Sometimes, not even in the cafeteria. He had his earphones in at all times, and his hands firmly in his hoodie pockets. He had been too freaked out by what he was choosing to call his “episodes”, and it’s not like he could really tell his family.

'It's not that difficult to make friends!' His mom's voice echoed through his head.

Man, if only she saw him now.

Because now, he was spending his lunch period in the library, having sandwiched himself into a corner as he silently ate his packed veggie wrap from a dying paper bag. He scrolled through his phone, earbuds in, startling at a tapping feeling on his shoulder.

"Hey- hey- sorry to scare you."

Changbin squinted as he tried to figure out why the man talking to him sounded so muffled before he realized that he had baby metal blasting in his ears.

He took out an earbud and looked up.

"Y-You're that Seo kid right? On the soccer team? Seo...Chanjin? Seo...Jungsik? No- Chansik- wait no- Woobin-"

"Changbin." He said, annoyed by the (honestly, kind of pretty) boy that had intruded on his alone time.

"Right! My friend is a huge fan! He tags along on your practices because his friend is also on the team- I don't know if you know Jeongin-"

Yang Jeongin. The other really good player on the team...also, the youngest, and someone who had the entire soccer team as his 'best friend group'. Someone Changbin envied. Seungmin was the guy this kid must be talking about. He's friends with everyone on the team- even Changbin to some extent. The two exchanged greetings, and one day when Changbin was overworked and almost collapsed, Seungmin brought him a Jelly pouch. Changbin paid him back a week later with 24 hour store food. Changbin didn't consider them friends, by any means.

"You're friends with Kim Seungmin?" Changbin asked, and the other male nodded with a smile. "Yes! Well...more like a constant annoyance in the back of his head at all times we share periods together, but yes. I'm his friend." The boy said, and Changbin couldn't help but snort.

"Why are you talking to me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A-Ah...well, you see, Seungmin saw you walking out of the cafeteria and he said he was concerned because you act different at practice but didn't really explain what he meant and then said that he wished he knew you better because you always seem alone and-"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Changbin looked at the boy who was talking, who paused to breathe for a few minutes. "What's your name?" Changbin asked, tilting his head.

"Han Jisung." Jisung said, smiling.

Changbin wracked his head for any info he might've heard about this kid.

Wait.

"Kang Brian's cousin?"

"Yeah!"

Of course this kid was also somehow involved with the soccer team. Changbin sighed. Brian was nice...but also a little...he had no sense of boundary, and Changbin didn't really know how to tell the man to stop fucking hugging him when all they had on were towels.

"Anyways! Where was I? Seungmin...oh yeah! So Seungmin said-"

"Wait. What do you want?" Changbin asked, suspicious that this was a prank.

"Well, if you wouldn't keep stopping me I'd tell you-"

"Just tell me now."

Jisung seemed mildly annoyed, but pestered on anyways. "Fine. Seungmin wants to know if you'd like to sit with us at lunch." He said, exhaling slightly as he finished his sentence. 

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"...Okay."

For the next two weeks, Changbin sat with three other people in the very back of cafeteria C, claiming the corner seat almost immediately. Next to him, a chatty Jisung who talked about literally everything- mostly music, sometimes gossip, very rarely studies. Seungmin sat across from Changbin, either having a book open or scrolling through his phone, having long since mastered the art of selectively listening to some of what Jisung said. Jeongin sat next to Seungmin, on his own phone, sometimes engaging in conversation, other times reading what looked like a little kid's comic on his phone. Changbin didn't really have to do anything. Which was great, because he had another 'episode'.

It started out simple, Changbin had no idea it was coming. He had been awkwardly exhausted all day. Awkward, because it was that kind of exhaustion that loomed over you everywhere you went, no matter what you were doing. Where you're too tired to be able to focus in class or really do anything (including yawning- people don't really think you're tired if you're not yawning). You can't really get yourself to be awake even though you've had 3 cups of coffee (because of which all being downed in the first hour of school you're now shaking), took an unrestful nap for your 3rd period, tried to close your eyes every second you could, but nothing really worked.

Yeah. That's what Changbin felt.

It was in the hallway on the way to lunch that he collapsed, a few students rushing away from him, and a few students rushing to him.

He couldn't see anything, he's sure his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he groaned as he tried to sit up but came crashing back down against the lockers and floor. There was...something tugging his arm. ..no ...someone?

Changbin blindly thrashed around as he tried to get up, and there was a sound that was getting louder.

No, a voice.

"Chan! Grab his other arm please- Hyunjin stay back- be ready to get a nurse if we need to- Jisung I'm sure he's fine please-"

"His eyes are still rolling!"

"Have you ever seen someone pass out?"

"...no…"

"Look away if you're scared."

There was a silence and Changbin decided to try and get up again, but this time he was held down.

"Did you do drugs?" Was that...Brian?? Why did he sound so angry?

Changbin tried hard to see if he could get a good look at the other. "Huh?" He asked, clearly confused.

"Did you do drugs?" He repeated, and Changbin laughed a little. "I wouldn't even know where to get them." His speech was so slurred he had to hold onto Brian to steady himself.

"Just tired." He murmured, yawning.

"Did you not sleep?"

"I did- but.." he trailed off as he started to cry and panic, thrashing around.

"Can't! Can't move- I can't fucking move i-" Changbin could move one of his arms, and he was using it to try and get their attention because now he's panicking.

"Changbin you can move look at your arm-" 

"My other arm?? My legs? Help, help, he-"

"Changbin." It was the other boy who spoke now.

Changbin couldn't hear him.

"Changbin!" Changbin snapped out of it and looked at the other boy. Chan. He was looking at Changbin, the two staring at each other for a few seconds before Chan spoke.

"Changbin, you're not breathing."

As soon as he said it, Changbin realized he was indeed right. Changbin was not breathing. Pressure was going to his head and it was starting to burn.

Changbin gasped for air, coughing violently as he did so, Chan patting him on the back. "Can you move yet?" He asked, and after testing his legs slightly, he nodded although he was shaky.

"Here- I'll carry you to your lunch table, wherever you sit."

"I sit with him." Jisung spoke up.

"Cool, Jisung can lead the way then."

Changbin felt embarrassed as he leaned on Chan for support (only feeling slightly better when he realized the other was as ripped as him, if not moreso), Jisung slowly leading them into the cafeteria. 

"Changbin! Changbin? Oh my god what happened? Oh hi Hyunjin- Jisung what happened?" Seungmin and Jeongin fired off at the same time, watching Chan help Changbin to his lunch seat with Brian behind them. Chan and Brian exchanged a few words before Brian finally backed down, disappearing as Jisung filled in Seungmin and Jeongin as to what happened, Changbin picking at the food Chan set in front of him.

"Eat it." Chan said. "You'll feel better."

Changbin obeyed.

It went like that for days. Jisung and Chan worrying sick over Changbin, who just wanted to live peacefully, Hyunjin watching the three warily, not saying anything (he sat with them and did not speak for two fucking weeks), and Seungmin and Jeongin constantly asking on updates for Changbin's health even when Changbin told them they didn't need to anymore.

Slowly, Felix, Chan's cousin joined their table. Very sweet, his Korean was accented slightly, but he was overall just a bright person to be around. His personality played off of Jisung's so well, Changbin was glad at how distracted Jisung seemed to get a few lunches in. Then a couple of days later, a silent but cute guy named Minho who Changbin recognized from Rugby. His first words were about cats. Very fitting, for the male. He also shamelessly flirted with Chan.

For almost a month, they were talking together at lunch. Only at lunch mostly, staying to themselves during overlapping activities, but they still tried to all catch up for that two hour period they had almost every day.

"Hey guys, do you have plans for Halloween? My mom said my cousin is celebrating it with his friends and she wants me to do the same thing with mine." Jisung spoke casually, eyes focused on a chip he threw into his mouth.

"Brian has friends that would hang out with him on Halloween?? All his friends seem so...introverted." Jeongin said, snorting as Jisung gave him a look. "Do I look like I give a shit about my cousin's friends?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

"I was gonna go to a party with my brother, but he says he's got some sort of romance going on with two other boys and it's killing him slowly inside." Seungmin said. "I'm pretty sure Wonpil has only seen two pretty men in his life and because they know each other he physically can't be in the same room as them." Seungmin shook his head.

"He's more of a useless gay than me." Changbin joked, and Minho coughed on his water, not expecting the sudden joke. Chan winked at the elder causing him to blush, and Jisung to roll his eyes even harder. "Seems like you're not the only useless gay at the table." He said, and Minho couldn't stop himself from laughing despite the water that spilt on his uniform pants.

"I don't think any of us has plans." Chan said, redirecting the focus back to the topic at hand. 

"What if we make a night of Halloween at someone's house? Just the right of us, since we have school in the morning anyways." Felix suggested, and Hyunjin smiled. "I could bring snacks and drinks. Maybe even some games or something." He suggested.

"We haven't been to each other's houses yet minus me and Seungmin. It could be fun." Jeongin said. 

"We could do it at my house." Changbin said. "My parents are rarely home anymore so the living room could be ours." He said, humming.

"Okay." 

"Yeah sure."

"I don't see why not."

"I'll have to ask my mom first!"

"Oooh we should make a fort!"

"Of course we'll make a fort dumbass"

"Please just shower before you use my blankets I'll cry real tears."

"You sports kids need to shower at all times you fucking stink"

And, well, it was a little chaotic, but later that week, when Changbin was squeezed between all his friends in a really shitty fort, watching an American horror movie, basically sitting on Chan and Jisung's laps (rip), he found himself remembering when Jisung came up to him in the library that day. How he awkwardly asked him to sit with Jeongin and Seungmin, who were concerned for him, and how now, they were some of his closest friends, and for once, they weren't just meeting in the lunchroom.

Changbin made lunchbox friends, and he was glad they became so much more than that.

**Author's Note:**

> Lol Changbin has friends now


End file.
